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Mancunian Poet Tony Walsh Visits

On Friday 24th November, Mancunian Poet Tony Walsh, aka Longfella, visited Emmanuel for a second time. Tony had previously on International Poetry Day in 2016. When the Manchester bombing happened in May 2017, he found himself inundated with requests to support the City and gained widespread acclaim for his reading of his poem, ‘This is the Place’, at both the memorial and Ariana Grande’s fundraising concert. Tony ran a number of workshops with students in Years 9 and 10, with students in both year groups working fantastically with him. Many students discovered or rediscovered a passion for poetry, learning that it is about more than sonnets and rhyming. At the end of a full day, Tony delivered an hour-long assembly to 200 Year 9 students. It was great to see students fully engaged by Tony’s talk and listening in awed silence as he performed some of his own poetry. During the assembly, Tony talked about how his life had changed through becoming a poet and he reinforced how powerful and yet accessible words can be. A fantastic day and great to see so many students talking about and enthused by poetry.